[9.1.5 PTR] Announced changes to the Hunter class

[Ghorak-laughing-skull]

@Aonax-magtheridon

I expect a lot more changes before this patch hits live servers as we haven’t seen Blizzard touch on a ton of aoe spells. They also noted in there initial blog post that they are going to be looking at a number of talents and legendary powers. Hopefully they will realize how many Hunter Legendries just don’t add much value even if we were allowed to equip a second

Yep, fingers crossed.

I made this post in another topic in regards to the current state of BM. Ofc you can argue it to be too much for any mid-xpac patch but yeah, one can but hope for the future.

---

My current thoughts on Beast Mastery

Cliff notes-version:

Core Abilities

• Reduce the Focus cost of Kill Command by 5 for each enemy you hit with Multi-Shot.
• Make A Murder of Crows into a baseline ability for this spec(BM). Same base funcionality/design(more options through talents).

Major Cooldown

• Add a Focus cost-reduction to other abilities during BW, when it’s active. Similar to the Legion-lego effect(Roar of the Seven Lions).
• Remove Aspect of the Wild entirely.

Mastery Bonus

• Make Mastery slightly more effective by adding a scaling component for the damage bonus granted by Bestial Wrath. See the full concept link below for specifics.

Passive Effects

• Make Animal Companion a passive choice for us, one that does not affect our damage but rather is just a cosmetic option. Again, see the full concept for specifics.
• Extend the duration of Beast Cleave from 4 sec up to 5, to allow for some leeway in terms of maintenance and ability usage.
• Make Kill Command benefit from Beast Cleave, dealing reduced damage to nearby enemies.
• Increase the proc chance of Wild Call from 20% up to 25%.

Utility & Defensives (Class-wide)

• [Posthaste] - Should become a baseline effect.
• [Master’s Call] - Should be reverted back to a baseline ability.
• [Pet Specializations] - Make Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning changeable for individual pets again, like it worked in Legion.
• [Revive Pet] - Preferably, reduce the cast time down to 2 seconds again.
• [Camouflage] - Should be reverted back to a baseline ability.

This section also includes some changes to talents that focus on utility. See the full concept below for specifics.

Talents

• Change BM talents, in addition to what’s mentioned above, in several ways to allow for more interesting and impactful choices to be possible. Some talents are more or less useless and have been so for a very long time.
  This section covers changes/replacements to multiple talents so click on the expandable tab below, or check the full concept(linked post) for details.

---

Changes to specific talents - Click here to expand

Talents

– Level 15 –

[Killer Instinct] - Kill Command deals 45% increased damage against enemies below 35% health.

Kill Command deals an additional 10% damage against bleeding targets.

[Bloodshed] - 50 yd range - Instant - 1 min cooldown
Command your pet(s) to tear into your target, causing your target to bleed for X damage over 18 sec, and increase all damage taken from your pet(s) by 15% for 18 sec.

[Dire Beast] - (Replaces Barbed Shot) - Instant - 12 sec recharge - 2 Charges
Summons a powerful wild beast that attacks the target for 8 sec.

Generates 20 Focus over 8 sec.

– Level 25 –

[Scent of Blood] - Activating Bestial Wrath grants 2 charges of Barbed Shot/Dire Beast.

[One with the Pack] - Wild Call has a 20% increased chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot/Dire Beast.

Using Barbed Shot/Dire Beast increases your Haste by 5% for 12 sec.

[Feeding Frenzy] - Damage dealt by Barbed Shot increased by X%. When the periodic damage effect applied by Barbed Shot is refreshed, the remaining damage will be added to the new effect, and it now lasts for a total of 9 sec.

In addition, Frenzy’s duration is also increased to 9 seconds.

• Dire Frenzy(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
  Each time a Dire Beast is called, the damage dealt by your main pet(s) is increased by 1%.
  When you activate Bestial Wrath, this consumes all stacks of Dire Frenzy and increases the initial damage dealt by Bestial Wrath by 30% for each stack that is consumed.

– Level 30 –

[Trailblazer] - [Natural Mending]

[Bestial Dicipline] - While your pet is active, you and your pet(s) regenerate X% of total health every 3 sec. Healing done to you and your pet(s) is increased by X%.

Damage taken by your pet(s) is reduced by 15%

– Level 35 --

[Spitting Cobra] - Bestial Wrath also summons a Spitting Cobra to aid you in combat for 15 sec. Each Cobra Shot used during Bestial Wrath extends the remaining duration of the Spitting Cobra by 1 sec.

[Thrill of the Hunt] - Barbed Shot/Dire Beast reduces the remaining cooldown of Bestial Wrath by an additional 4 sec.

Barbed Shot/Dire Beast increases your critical strike chance by 5% for 12 seconds.

[Birds of Prey] - Kill Command extends the remaining duration of A Murder of Crows by 2 sec.

Damage of A Murder of Crows is increased by X%.

– Level 40 –

[Born to be Wild] - [Binding Shot]

[Adaption] - (Replaces Posthaste) Getting hit with an incapacitating effect(Stun/Fear), reduces the remaining cooldown of your Aspect of the Turtle by 30%. This effect has an internal cooldown of X sec.

Aspect of the Turtle is now usable when incapacitated.

When rooted or slowed, the remaining cooldown of Aspect of the Cheetah is reduced by 15 seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah frees you from movement impairing effects and you cannot be slowed below 100% movement speed while it’s active.

– Level 45 –

[Stomp] - When you cast Barbed Shot/Dire Beast, your pet stomps the ground, dealing X Physical damage to all nearby enemies.

[Chimaera Shot] - Instant cast - 15 sec cooldown
A two-headed shot that hits your primary target and another nearby target, dealing X Nature damage to one and X Frost damage to the other.

Generates 10 Focus for each target hit.

[Talon Frenzy] - While Beast Cleave is active, A Murder of Crows affects up to 8 enemies near the primary target.

– Level 50 –

[Aspect of the Beast] - Increases the damage and healing of your pet’s abilities by 30%.

Increases the effectiveness of your pet’s Predator’s Thirst, Endurance Training, and Pathfinding passives by 50%.

[Stampede] - Instant cast - 30 sec duration - 2 min cooldown
Summons 5 of your stabled pets to fight for you for 30 sec. These pets deal X% of normal damage and obey your Kill Command.

Pets summoned by Stampede heal themselves for 200% of the damage they deal.

[Unleashed Fury] - Instant cast - 20 sec cooldown
Sends your pet into a rage, causing it to deal X Physical damage to the target in a flurry of 5 attacks. Damage dealt is increased by X% for every stack of Frenzy the pet currently has.

When this ability is used, your pet will let out a savage roar, increasing your haste by 10% for 12 sec.

• Bestial Fury(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
  Damage dealt by Dire Beasts during Bestial Wrath is increased by another X%.
  Any Dire Beasts called during Bestial Wrath will have their duration increased by an additonal X sec. This also applies to Dire Beasts who have already been called to fight when Bestial Wrath is activated. Attacks made by Dire Beasts will now also benefit from Beast Cleave, if activated.

---

Full concept and specifics:

Beast Mastery - future improvements[Partial rework]

I know this is a big overkill in terms of suggestions for a 0.5 patch(any mid-expansion patch really). But I though I’d take another look at what I would like to see from Beast Mastery in the future, based on it’s current design. Some things, such as a lack of potential single-target burst, cleave, or burst AoE/AoE in general, have been mentioned by others in regards to the spec several times both recently and further back in time. Along with the “squishy” nature of Hunters. Hopefully, some of …